I´ve had a strange reaction from a client...

As an english citizen my english skills are only fair to middling and my typing skills are worse!

It's interesting that many people who study english as a language are actually more accurate in its use because we use it as we've learnt it over time where as they study spelling and grammer in a more precise way.

certainly an indian imigrant I work with is surprised at how little we now about our own language (that's not just me by the way but the entire office).

but this is a topic for another thread and my impression is that this person has a very good grasp of english and uses it "naturally".

It would still be good to see some excertps

 

What does anyone from England know about English?

Fat lot of help you are.

 

It has always been of my opinion that a website. article or ad copy should be written in a manner which the intended recipient can relate to. Use of strict proper "English" could actually alienate many groups in much the same way the use of the word "Whom" would go over as a first impression at a dinner party with new acquaintances.

 

I think this sums it up all too well. GADOOD needed a lesson on editing too, going by his posts in this thread.

 

Correct. You need to write to your audience. When you purchase writing, it's important that your writer knows the intended audience.

 

Don't get me wrong. GADOOD posts some informative stuff, I'm not knocking anyone. I just felt that Padme had already taken one blow from a client most likely trying to manipulate him or just getting his power kicks. He needed encouragement and his post "was" quite well written. ( As compared to many ).

 

Send me one of the articles by PM and I will give you my honest opinion of the *writing* quality.

I may not be able to comment on the accuracy of the writing relative to the subject.

 

Once again, thank you all for your input. I have sent a couple of P.M.´s and so far the feedback I got was good.

The same issue seems to be present in everyone’s opinions thou.... The most incident critique I received was about always showing the same point of view in the article but that was not really my choice- I was specifically requested to do so. Anyway, I decided to post one of the articles here for your honest evaluation. Please do not re-publish.
Thank you


Truths not Written in Stone – part 1


There is on type of Truth that is common to every single human being on this Planet; it is called Universal Truth.
Universal Truths are something that we do not need to be told or taught about- some psychologists claim this knowledge to be genetic, some claim it to be gained at our first months of life.

Truth’s like “we need to eat in order to survive” and “when we are thirsty, we drink water” are part of our natural survival instincts. There are those who claim it to be a remaining of our primary animal instincts, hidden under our social and cultural “suits”; today, I want to tell you about one of those old Truths that do not need to be written in stone for all of us to remember them: “The soul also needs food”.
We constantly feed it with music, literature, cinema, love, friendship…There are many many emotions capable to feed our souls but one is common to everyone: it is called Happiness. Yes, you know what I am talking about. You too, seek it.

What is exactly my point with all this philosophical babbling about happiness and food for the soul? Wasn’t this supposed to be a website about MLM?
Hold on, I will get to it! I am trying to make a point here and I want to make sure you get it all right.

We know everyone’s happiness depends on different things; mine may depend on a bigger house and a BMW parked at the door and yours may depend on a small house near the beach.
No matter what, we all need the same tool to achieve the happiness we seek-this tool is called self-esteem, confidence in yourself and all your capabilities.

When it comes to that, financial freedom is one major factor in ones happiness. And if you have come this far, I believe we are on the same quest: To achieve financial freedom thru an MLM business...
As it is, this is my first lesson in achieving MLM success: nourish your self-confidence. You will never obtain enough people in your network if you do not love yourself enough to make people want to be sponsored by YOU.

Sponsoring involves the same tools and takes the same abilities as selling a product- in fact, you are doing just that. Have you ever seen a salesman who does not shine with self-confidence?

Myself, I am happy by changing people’s minds so, keep reading the MLM tips I am about to share with you. Those are simple, down to heart tips, there are not big MLM secrets involved – although, I confess, the MLM business involves a few secrets in itself but that is another story.

Right now, we will change your mind to the “happiness” mode and will bring about every bit of MLM success you can achieve in this lifetime.

 

On and by the way I am a SHE

 

The English is fine and so is the writing IMHO. My only criticism is that you seem to start new paragraphs arbitrarily instead of what they are for which is to signal a new line of thought.

Certianly the buyer has a backspace key which along with 10 seconds is all the editing the article needs

I also hate semi colons because even if properly used, alienate readers but again, they coulc have stated that specifically if that was the issue (Most people don't know the proper use of semi colons in technically correct writing)

 

Your English has not reached the level of a professional writer yet. Your grammar and the way you formulate your sentences can be improved. I would compare your writing to that of a normal university student; still one notch below that of a true freelance writer.

That being said, for the rate that you are probably charging, your article is acceptable.

 

your client is certainly exaggerating the negative remarks. although i'd say the structures are a little disorganized.

 

Personally I love semi colons yfs1 - I like the challenge of trying to include them in my writing. It all started when I read Bill Bryson...

Anyway, the big question in my mind is what you agreed with your client before you started writing, Padme?

By the way, I don't think it helps that the third word in the article is a typo, first impressions and all that...

 

If possible, ask someone else to proof read your work. Sometimes it gets difficult proof reading your own writing...Specially if it comes to simple spelling mistakes and missing : , ; etc
Bye

 

Look - it doesn't matter how I spell or how I use grammer (or grammer as I was corrected earlier in the thread).

The fact is everyone knows I'm English simply by the words, phrases and the general flow.. everything I write and how I say it is English....... any mistakes I make do not scream 'I'M FOREIGN', do they? That is my point. The original posters post DID scream 'I'M FOREIGN' so it really doesn't matter up to what standard of English they learned and I'm sure all of his articles scream 'I'm foreign' as well... that's just how it is.

You won't find a single error in anything I've ever written anywhere over a thousand posts on here that scream ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE despite the thousands of mistakes I've probably made.

Since I speak and grew up in an English speaking country it's NOT hard to spot an article that's written by a foreigner... others foreigners may think it's good english or wahtever but that doesn't MATTER... the grammer/spelling is important but it's more important the article and flow SOUNDS LIKE AN ENGLISH SPEAKING person.............riiiiiiight!

The article posted here for critique is obviously not written by an english speaking person because they simply wouldn't use phrases and the words etc in the way a foreigner learned in their English class... it's OK if it's just to pick up keywords in Google but I can fully understand why someone wouldn't want to pay for it.

Pete

 

It's true that you *MAY* be able to tell the article wasn't written by a person that speaks English as a first language. However, I have seen articles with quality that was abysmal compared to Padme's example. Yes, there are problems with the article, granted. At the very least, I think the client should have given Padme specifics about what wasn't up to specifications and given her a chance to edit and revise if necessary.

 

What do you mean *MAY* Denise? I can tell. That is a fact. I could tell by her first post she wasn't English and knew that would be the likely problem with the article and I also know this cannot be corrected by Padme.

There is no 'may' about it I'm afraid. I'm only been honest!

Pete

 

The person who approached you, where did he find you, here? Through the web? A recommendation? Before asking you to write the articles had he seen anything you'd written before, in forums or professionally (unlike some, I see the difference in writing styles).

I would agree that you should ask for specific examples as to his complaints. If he can present any then perhaps you could edit them accordingly. If he cannot it is a sure sign he's scamming you out of your work.

Regardless of the faults he's claiming to find he should be able to pinpoint specifics if he really has valid complaints.

I've not seen your work, I cannot judge for myself or anyone else. I can say constructive criticism is necessary in such a case. If he can't give you that, if I were you, I'd keep my eyes open for the articles appearing online without your consent.

Good luck. It's tough selling yourself. You can't blame the product objectively if you created it.

 

I have to agree with gadood here. Even if I didn't know this was written by a foreigner you can tell. The wording and sentence structure is very unusual. I'm not totally sure what the point of the article is, even after reading it and that's a problem.

All in all, it reads like most stuff written by a foreigner who learned english in school instead of every day situations. I've seen worse (and deleted it immediately afterwards), but honestly - its a pretty generic piece that seems to ramble to me *shrugs*.

Atrocious? probably not. Great? Nah. I'd say its about 7th or 8th grade english.

 

Lorien, I'd tend to agree. It's really not all that bad, but it's not as high quality as it could be. I've seen better articles, but I've also seen worse. I can't speak for the client, but if he or she cannot provide specific examples as to what's wrong with the article like all of us can, it's probably not an issue with quality but more an issue of whether he wanted to pay for the articles or not.